Today I went to Jimmy’s Annual Old Car Picnic in Golden Gate park. It is the largest and longest-running classic car show in San Francisco and includes cars, trucks, and motorcycles of all types. Apparently it all started in 1988 when classic car-loving friends got together in Golden Gate Park to celebrate Jimmy O’Keefe’s birthday.

Who’s Jimmy you might wonder? Well he is a fourth-generation San Franciscan who recently retired after 35 years as a gardener in Golden Gate Park. 23 years ago he told his friends to bring hot dogs and their favorite classic wheels when he was celebrating his birthday in October of 1988 in the park. Anothjer tid-bit; Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic is now the largest and longest-running event of its kind in Northern California.

I’ve always enjoyed going to old car shows but was totally unaware of the fact that this was happening so close to home! I live literally a few blocks away. The weather was awesome and the cars were great; a wide variety of cars -flawless, European, less than perfect and American. The only requirement to exhibit your vehicle is that has to been made before 1972. One day I’ll be there with my Volvo P1800!

Click here to view the entire album on facebook.

With the increasing popularity of social sites such as twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn it’s easy to lose track who to follow or what to subscribe to! It used to be so easy; each morning simply open your Outlook RSS folder or Google Reader to get the latest info about (Microsoft Dynamics) CRM. So now what?

Being an early adopter of twitter I have seen that, like for many, my focus changed from writing blogposts to simply share things that interest me in 140 characters or less in matter of seconds. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Other are often said to shorten attention spans and encourage instant gratification. It happened to me and I’m sure it has or will happen to you eventually.

So with this said; do you love Twitter but dislike that feeling that everyone else has found better people to follow than you? Do you want to follow great Dynamics CRM focused tweeters, but don’t have the time to find them or add them to a list? Sounds like most people, really – so you will be extremely happy with the fact that I curate a handpicked Twitter list of people who focus predominantly on Microsoft Dynamics CRM!

Follow it to get the latest and greatest insights from the Dynamics CRM ecosystem. In case I have omitted you and think you should be added to the list, drop me a comment with your twitter handle and I’ll add you.

Question: Do you agree, is twitter really impacting our ability to read and think at length?

<BEGIN RANT>

I am from The Netherlands, a country where we have more bicycles than citizens. We do pretty much everything you can imagine on our bike. From going to school as a little kid, doing groceries or dropping of your kids at their school.

I live in San Francisco, a city that is probably much more bicycle friendly than most cities in the U.S.A. Usually the people that ride a bicycle here are strongly associated with the modern hipster sub-culture. I guess in a way you’re cool when you dare to ride a bicycle in the city.

Well you’re not cool when you ride your bicycle without proper lighting people! Is it so difficult to buy a head- and tail light? Or if you have them, to turn them on? It actually increases the rider’s conspicuity; in other words you’ll lower the chance of getting killed by an unsuspecting motorist! Literally minutes ago I almost ran over someone without lights, wearing black clothing and riding a black bike!

I can go on and on how bad cyclist behave here in the city, but I wont. Cops should, like in Holland, enforce the law and fine all of them!

Note: Those who enjoy a bicycle ride through the many streets of California should always be aware of the lighting laws that apply, especially when the bicycle is being ridden during the nighttime hours. Any resident who operates a bicycle after sunset in California must equip the bicycle, or themselves, with a white light that can clearly be seen from 300 feet away. The light must be visible from both the front and the sides of the bicycle while the bicycle is in motion. Rear reflectors and pedal reflectors are also mandatory while the bicycle is in motion after sunset in California.

</END RANT>

This has been something that has been on my mind for quite a while. It is something that I almost immediatly noticed when moving to the States about 5 years ago and started having business meetings with partners and customers. To my knowledge it is not something that is just limited to the west coast.

You’re probably wondering by now; what is this you speak of Menno?

Well, have you ever noticed that, when attending a business meeting, 9 out of 10 times you’re not offered anything to drink? Yet everyone walks into the meeting room with their own bottles, cup of coffee or frappuccino’s. To make matters even worse, often people step out of the meeting to just get a refill without asking anyone else if they would like to have something to drink!

To me this is just unintelligible, anti-social and simply ‘not done’ in the country where I come from! Do you invite friends and family over to your house and don’t offer them anything to drink there as well?

Now here’s the kicker, in my case, usually a company wants to talk about (Social) CRM. How can you be social as a company if you and your employees don’t practice this in real life? How can you establish (customer) relationships if you don’t use some basic etiquette? There is nothing better than having a business conversation while drinking a cup of coffee together!

This is a country that is really all about customer service. Waitresses and waiters often get paid below minimum wage and need to make up for that by providing extra good service in order to get a good tip. I wonder how many of you bitch and moan about whether or not you were served well in a restaurant and the next day you don’t even offer a guest at your office something to drink.

So what’s the point of all of this? Well, there have been many definitions written about (Social) CRM and don’t worry, I am not going to list them here. You should have stumbled upon a few of these definitions the last few years, I’m sure. Most of them are good but I think a lot, perhaps all, are forgetting the most essential part; you have to be social in order to succesfully embrace and apply (Social) CRM.

What do you think? Should an organization be socially active on all of these social networks when they often are the complete opposite when you visit their offices?

After countless months, even years, I’ve decided to revisit my blog. Those of you that have been around in the CRM world may remember this URL as the home of the “CRMfreak”. I never intended to just disappear from the blogosphere, but I did. I blame myself and twitter for that! 140 characters was just that much easier, and cooler, to share new things, thoughts and ideas with the (CRM) world.

I’ve been itching to blog again for awhile. I’m not entirely sure why that is, or what may have caused that. One thing you now do need to expect is that future posts will be a bit more varied than CRM.

A couple things I need to figure out:

1. Who actually reads my blog? Do I have an audience besides CRM freaks?
2. How personal should I be?  I’m fairly open in 140 characters on Twitter or in 420 on facebook.
3. What topics should and shouldn’t I blog about?
4. Am I able to commit to post regular? Can or should I write a post per week?

Alright, I guess that’s my starting point for now. What I am more clear on is that, contrary to my previous posts, I plan to write foremost for myself, for my own learning. To create an audience of readers. Lastly, to facilitate becoming part of a network of individuals interested in similar topics. This time around my intention is to travel wider, quicker, and more in the first person. More journal, less CRM. More bookmarks and pointers to pieces I find interesting, less technical solutions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Well, let’s see how this goes. I’m again ‘in’.